Putin Vs Britain: How Russia's forces stack up against the UK's Army, RAF and Navy

Global Firepower ranks Putin’s military numbers as second in the world, behind the US alone. Britain, however, is said to have only the eighth largest military force in the world.

In its total number of tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery and more, Russia outguns the UK many times over.

Moscow has an estimated manpower of roughly 900,000-1,350,000, far higher than that of London (just shy of 200,000).

Once world renowned for its naval force, the UK now possesses fewer than 80 vessels.

Russia has more than 600.

Low stockpiles also mean the UK recently had to buy howitzer planes from a third party to send to Ukraine.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace also admitted that the ammunition stocks of Western countries “are inadequate for the threats we face”.

The country’s ammunition ran out after just eight days in a war simulation last year.

Britain’s defence spending is set to rise to 2.3 percent of GDP this year following increasing spending in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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An official earlier this month told the Washington Post: “There will come a time when the tiny advances Russia is making become unsustainable in light of the costs and they will need a significant pause to regenerate capability.”

On the Wests more limited forces, the Financial Times this week highlighted that military spending among NATO members as a whole was much higher than that of Russia, standing at around $1.1trillion.

It added, however: “Even so, a large part of that NATO spending has been on advanced systems, such as fighter jets, that have not been deploy by the West in this conflict.

“Much of Western defence over the past 20 years has been geared towards fighting counter-insurgencies in the Middle East rather than being ready for heavyweight tank and artillery battles such as those in Ukraine.”

This comes amid fears that the current conflict could spill out of Ukraine.

General Sir Patrick Sanders, the new head of the British Army, last month said argued that “we are the generation that must prepare the Army to fight in Europe once again”.

NATO has also launched plans to massively increase the size of its instant response forces across the world.

source: express.co.uk